We had toasted bagels for breakfast, which was great with butter. I ate at least two, as I was pretty hungry after the quesadillas came up a little short in quantity the previous night.
Sean taught me how to steer today. His teaching style matched my learning style nicely, and he's just generally a great person. Definitely a role model for me in how he acts on the river and in camp. Sean taught me the various strokes and then coached me through when to use them. He was a great person for me to be paired with, and I'm very appreciative of his patience and great attitude throughout the entire trip.
We stopped at Fern Canyon after paddling for about 1 mile. We were supposed to take a hike into the canyon. We started to change into hiking boots, but stopped when we learned that we would be hiking through knee deep water and mud.
Chris and Jakub paddled ahead to make sure the cars and keys had reached the take-out point as planned. We thought Chris had said to hike left to the rock wall before entering the canyon to avoid knee-deep mud, but this led only to dead ends. We finally backtracked and found a way to the canyon entrance, but this took about 30 minutes.
Many people in our group thought we should just leave since we already used 30 minutes (and the leaders of the day claimed we were only scheduled to spend 45 minutes at Fern Canyon), and the first scramble would require us to crawl on our stomachs through the dirt under a ledge next to a muddy pool. The consensus seemed to be that we could either spend more time to explore Fern Canyon now or do the Window Trail in the Chisos Basin that night.
The leaders of the day decided to put it to a vote, but Sean and I insisted on making points before the vote. Sean noted that the Window trail is a front-country trail that can be done in '6 minutes' whereas this was a back-country trail. People objected that the Window trail would take more than '6 minutes' and lost the point. Billy then said something that supported not exploring Fern Canyon, but I do not remember what it was. And then I said what Sean later said he meant: The Window Trail is a front-country trail that can be done any time you come to Big Bend, whereas it will take a canoe and time to be able to explore Fern Canyon on a future trip.
We then took a vote - 7 people voted to do Fern Canyon, 2 people voted not to do Fern Canyon, and the remaining 5 people abstained. Emily, Billy, and Tessa opted not to go into the canyon and instead stayed with the canoes. I was super excited about exploring the canyon, and scampered 3rd (after Brenden and Sebastian) under the ledge next to the muddy pond. It was a tight squeeze and then we had to climb up a smooth, narrow space between two rocks. Brenden gave me a hand up, which helped a lot. Both Brenden and Sean were great in the canyon. There were a lot of rock scrambles in the canyon - and my river shoes did not provide a reassuring amount of traction.
Tight squeeze under a ledge by a muddy pool at the entrance (photo by Manuel).
Sebastian next to the ferns near the mouth of Fern Canyon (photo by Sara B).
At one point it seemed like we had to bolder up a rock face, but I froze about halfway up. I told Brenden this and both he and Sean came over to help coach me. Brenden originally encouraged me to downclimb, but Sean encouraged me to climb up as he felt it would be safer and easier for me. Brenden spotted me from below and Sean coached me up and gave me a hand through the toughest part (but told me not to pull if I fell, as then I would pull him down since he didn't have a great hand hold!). They both helped me find good hand holds and foot holds to get out of the uncomfortable situation. We soon realized that this was the part of the canyon that Chris had meant when he said there was a section where you could either do a sketchy rock scramble or an easy climb thorough a tunnel and up a water fall. Sean later apologized for pushing me past my comfort zone, but that he felt going up was ultimately going to be the safest decision for me.
Sebastian and Hannah exploring in Fern Canyon (photo by Sara B).
Exploring in Fern Canyon (photo by Manuel)
Sebastian and Ellie dealing with some tricky footing as Brenden helps (photo by Manuel).
After this, we scrambled around the canyon for a while. Way too quickly, it was time to go back. I led the way out with Ellie, and had a blast going down the water fall, through the tunnel, and finally down the last scramble to drop down before crawling my way out. By this point, we were so muddy! But I was so happy. This was my favorite part of the trip besides Joel's Canyon.
I was so muddy after exiting Fern Canyon (photo by Manuel)
Once everyone was out of the canyon, we snacked and then took off. I was still steering, but doing much better now. I made a few poor decisions - one caused us to slam into a wall shot, another caused us to get stuck on gravel (Sean had to hop out and push us), and yet another caused the front of the canoe (and Sean!) to run straight into a river cane thicket. However, Sean was so patient and encouraging the whole time - such a great canoe partner!
Nearing the exit of Santa Elena canyon (photo by Manuel)
As we exited the canyon, we saw our first tourists hiking the short Santa Elana trail. It was definitely strange to see other humans, and to have to consider how our behavior might affect them (be it singing, telling jokes, or peeing behind bushes).
Group picture near the canyon exit (photo by Manuel).
Now pretend you actually like each other (photo by Manuel)
Sean and I were the first to reach the take-out point. We quickly unloaded all the canoes and then carried them up to the canoe trailer. Then we ate lunch and loaded into the suburbans to go to the Chisos Basin - somehow ahead of schedule even though we spent extra time at Fern Canyon.
Sean and I approaching the take out point. Note our flag (aka spare paddle). (photo by Jakub)
Once in the Chisos Basin, we found two non-reserved sites next to each other at the Chisos Basin campground. I'm not sure why Chris did not know there were group sites. Then about 10 of us went to hike the Window Trail for 2 hours while the other 6 put up three tents and cooked dinner. Brenden cooked a delicious potato soup with bunches of left over food, like almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, ect.
The Window Trail was disappointing to me. The actual window was not that cool, and I was bothered by all the cement brought in to make a trail near the actual window. We then took another tail to see an overview of the window, which was cooler. However, this left us to hike about 1.5 miles back in the dark with headlamps, which is pretty much one of my worst nightmares. Even with the headlamp, depth perception is still poor and hence hiking is difficult. Jakub was hiking slow too, so we hiked back together although the rest of the group was hurrying ahead of us. At least Sara B was kind enough to not push us to hurry.
Hiking towards the window on the Window Trail (photo by Manuel)
Group picture of the group that hiked to the window (photo by Manuel)
Once at camp, we ate dinner, bear proofed everything (which was surprisingly time consuming), and had the leader of the day debrief. I do not remember what was said about Sara B and Manuel, as I was nervously anticipating my upcoming leader of the day status.
Sebastian and I decided to have breakfast the next morning at 6:30am instead of 7am, but still have people wake up at 6am (since we would not have to pack-up our camp). After meeting with the 4 guides to get briefed on the upcoming day, we sat and talked about our schedule for tomorrow, our safety talk, and how we wanted to organize the hike.
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